Signs on social media: Posts reveal suspected gunman had been planning Buffalo attack for months

Here are the latest developments:

• Attack would have continued elsewhere had suspect not been stopped: The suspect had other “target locations” down the street, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said. Authorities found another rifle and a shotgun in his vehicle, said Garcia, who credited the quick arrival of two police officers with preventing other attacks.

• Writing seen on suspect’s firearms: CNN has obtained a photo of two of the firearms inside the alleged gunman’s vehicle that were not used in the shooting. Writing is seen on the weapons, including the phrase “White Lives Matter,” as well as what appears to be the name of a victim of a crime committed by a Black suspect.

• Video shows gunman apologizing, sparing one person’s life: Video obtained by CNN and filmed during the shooting shows the gunman turning his weapon on a man who is curled up on the ground near what looks like a checkout lane. The man shouts, “No,” and the shooter then says “Sorry,” turns and walks away. The video ends at this point and it is unknown what happened next. It’s not clear why the man was apparently spared or why the gunman apologized.

• Threats made after attack: Two people have been arrested over threats made after the attack, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN on Tuesday, without detailing the threats. On Monday, Erie County’s district attorney announced the arrest of a 52-year-old man who called a pizzeria Sunday afternoon making threatening comments while referencing what happened at Tops.

Racist beliefs shared in rant allegedly from suspect

“We continue to investigate this case as a hate crime, a federal hate crime, and as a crime perpetrated by a racially motivated, violent extremist,” Stephen Belongia, special agent in charge of the FBI Buffalo field office, said Sunday at a news conference.

In the diatribe, Gendron said he became aware of his ideology “after extreme boredom” during the Covid-19 pandemic, and began sifting through the “politically incorrect” discussion board on 4chan, analysts with the New York Police Department said in an internal memo obtained by CNN on Tuesday.

He also wrote his beliefs came “from the internet” with “little to no influence … by people I met in person,” according to the memo.

The analysts wrote that Gendron likely became radicalized through social media and platforms such as Discord and the streaming outlet Twitch, warning that these are popular with the far right and can be effective in mobilizing violent extremists.

The Susquehanna Valley Central School District referred to it on Monday as an “ominous” reference to murder-suicide through a virtual learning platform in June. Though the threat was not specific and did not involve other students, the instructor immediately informed an administrator who escalated the matter to New York State Police, a spokesperson told CNN, adding the law limits what more school officials can say.

“The state police arrived at his house at that point last year,” said Garcia. “He stayed at a facility — I’m not sure if it was a hospital or a mental health facility — for a day and a half.”

Gendron wrote about the investigation in a January post on Discord. He wrote it ended when he told investigators his writings were just a stupid thing he’d done.

“Another bad experience was when I had to go to a hospital’s ER because I said the (words) “murder/suicide” to an online paper in economics class,” the post reads. He claimed he “got out of it because I stuck with the story that I was getting out of class and I just stupidly wrote that down.”

“That is the reason I believe I am still able to purchase guns. It was not a joke, I wrote that down because that’s what I was planning to do,” the post reads.

Gendron further claims that his mental health evaluation lasted just 15 minutes after he spent hours waiting in the emergency room.

Community mourns loved ones lost

“We are a community in Buffalo. If you are a Black and brown person, you knew someone impacted,” said Phylicia Dove, a local business owner and activist. “This is the impact of White supremacy. This was not a case of mental health, this is someone who targeted an impoverished community heavily concentrated with poor Black people, and caught us in our most vulnerable moment.”

“I feel more insulted than anything,” resident Darius Morgan told CNN. Born and raised in Buffalo, Morgan said of the gunman, “How dare you come in here? How dare you take this from us? We grew up here, this is our home, and they came in and destroyed it.”